Summer

1. School has been out since Thursday and we haven't killed each other yet.

2. The pool opened Saturday and we've been everyday dispite the fact that the temp has remained under 80 and closer to 60. I have yet to put on a swimsuit. I told the kids I could either read my book, fully clothed, at home or in the shade at the pool. They picked pool. They had a teeth chattering good time.

3. I just finished A Prayer For Owen Meany--my all time fave. I just started Austen's Persuation, which is no Pride & Prejudice but I'm getting into it.

4. I put the final touches on my song selection for VBS. This is the fourth year I've done music. This means teaching and leading songs for about 100 pre- through 2nd graders and then about 100 third through sixth graders. Here's the lineup:
And Can It Be--Charles Wesley hymn. I rewrote the melody to the first half of the verses (to make it accessible to small people and people [me] who find it hard to lead songs and play guitar at the same time--so not the same thing as performing).
Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus--only we're saying "love me like Jesus." I believe the vernacular has changed since the song's inception. I don't want to sing about Jesus doing me.
Let My Light Shine Bright -- camp song, call and response, hardy Yee-haw!
Go! -- from Scripture Rock, which is now out of print and was mediocre to start, except for this song. The text is basically the great commission. Nice.
The Word -- Sara Groves. She is about the only pop Christian music I can take these days. We're not singing the whole thing--just bits.

5. We've started the Dunbar Family Push Up Challenge. We all did push ups last night and recorded our starting ability. We'll check in every Monday night and whoever score increases the most by percentage will win something. The kids wanted candy, but we thought that defeated the purpose. I had a hard time explaining percentages--that it's not who does the most that wins. Very confusing.

6. I went to the Heavy Petting Zoo today. Okay, it was the Heavy Equipment Petting Zoo at the Library where the kids could climb on bulldozers, tractors, an ambulance, a firetruck, a semi, a hum-v, whathaveyou. Good fun.

7. Jon & Hope live in Iowa, which is for all practical purposes as lame as Nebraska, except that a caucus is looming there. So, they can go to the Pizza Palace and have Hillary Clinton kiss their new baby and sit down at their table for a few minutes. And Hopi can go to the local high school and sit with a kid on each knee and ask Barak Obama questions about immigration policy. We don't even get presidential campaign advertising here because neither side wants to waste money on a state that is without-a-doubt Republican (cough, gag, roll eyes, point finger to temple, etc).

8. It is time for the nightly after-dinner family walk.

9. Hope you are enjoying your summer so far!